Google has upgraded picture, video and Hangout functions that will be added to its Google+ social network – and claim that numbers of its active users have been underreported.
"With 540 million people active across Google each month, 300 million people active in just the stream and more than 1.5 billion photos uploaded every …

COMMENTS

While I have a Google+ Account... I tend to stick with Facebook, if only cause its stock on my Phone, and everyone I want to keep in contact with also uses it. I don't know anyone who'd say that about G+ though...

While I have a Facebook account... I tend to stick with Google+, if only cause it's stock on my phone, and everyone I want to keep in contact with also uses it. I don't know anyone who'd say that about Facebook though...

@AC 07:35

Re: @AC 07:35

I dunno - maybe I'm weird but I prefer G+. When I (briefly) had a facebook account, I kept getting emails, notifications, all sorts of spammy game things - I spent as much time clearing out the messages from people I didn't know and didn't want to interact with as I did actually interacting with friends. On G+ I get no annoying "see what your friends have been up to" emails and just get to look at what I want. It's there when I want to have a look, and otherwise leaves me alone. I much prefer it.

I signed up for it once

It then told me it suspected my name of being a fake. I could have verified it by jumping through a few dozen hoops, while whistling dixie and dancing a jig in spandex and a tie-died tutu, but I didnt think their poxy "services" were worth the hassle of doing that, plus having whatever info I posted up there sent out to their advertisers for all that spammy goodness.

Re: I signed up for it once

One of my Google account names is so obviously fake that an idiot could spot it, but I've had no problems. So, what kind of people are we dealing with here? I'm quite happy with my 2 x 15GB of cloudy storage but not impressed by Google+.

My fake google plus

Re: I signed up for it once

I actually opened a google+ account very early on and was experimenting with hangouts and things then the automated real name scanning algo crap came out and they suspended my account. I started the hoop jumping then gave up as its about as big brother forced as it gets. So if you want to borrow my rusty screwdriver your welcome.

They probably still count me in the stats though. Lies, damn lies and stats eh?

Just so you know in future:

When you've done creating the Youtube account, and it starts with the "yay, now give us your real name so we can make a Plus profile for you", just close the browser window. You now have a Youtube account, minus the extra added unwanted shit.

No, I don't know why they do it like that either. Force me to make a Plus account though, and my "real name" will be Fuckmeister McFuck, and every post will be a Fuckwall, and every picture will be the most awful porn I can find.

One Google

That is what the page said on sign-in, wouldn't let me go through Gmail direct, that was an advertising done in the vein of the new nexus7. Then it landed me inside my dashboard and I had to click Gmail to get to my mail. I guess that makes me 387,286,834th as a plus user - though earlier I locked down the privacy settings, so maybe I was in the first 300 million.

Something to contemplate for sure. One thing is for certain, we know that they are forcing the likes of me to click on sign-in instead of Gmail to get in the system. I guess I get to be one of the inflated number of users who log-in with whatever frequency I do to be show ads that I never see.

The bastards. They got me. And that doesn't bother me so much as not knowing what number I was. Do I get credit for being an early adopter by privatising it? Is my real account credited to way back when it was invite only (like when people laughed at you for having Gmail as opposed to a phone company provided email, because that was more 'professional')?

Depends on what they mean by "on" Google+. At some point I turned my gmail account into a Google+ account, for reasons I can't remember, but I've never even visited the actual service. I suspect I'm not the only one.

Antisocial

I tried twitter during some times but was so disgusted by the flood of racism, xenophobia and other hate speeches I leaved the service with relief. Why would I try another 'social' network, to face another time the mediocrity of most of Earth's inhabitants? Screw you people, let me live alone in my cave and choose by myself who I want to speak with.

problems reading?

300m active users in the steam (ie posting and using Google plus). You are in the minority..

I have adopted Google plus as my primary social network simply because out classes ask the others by miles. Friends and family are also slowly migrating from Facebook too, each new security screwup brings more.

Our small but distributed workplace - which uses google apps for email and increasingly for collaborative documents - has now moved to using google+ for the Hangouts video & IM feature.

We'd used various IM clients and Skype - which all had their problems - before switching to google+; is there any alternative to Hangouts, even a paid one, that is at least as good and no more hassle to setup?

Lync seems like a royal pain in the arse and we have no desire to setup Exchange. What else is there that's competitive and doesn't require a fulltime support person?

I'm one of their 'active' users because my phone backs up photos to G+ and I sometimes hit the G+ button on websites by accident - The only people I know who use the service as it is intended are a few people who dislike facebook for some reason or other, and a few google employees and their partners who I know. Having said that, I think it's actually nicer to use than Facebook - but about 80% of the people I know socially are on Facebook and not g+, and the other 20% are on both.

Wait for updates to 4.3?

"Sadly that feature is only available on some Android 4.3 devices, so the vast majority of fandroids will have to wait for an update before they try it."

I can't confirm this as I haven't made a series of small movies while waving my arms in a car but I have the updated APK installed on two separate phones running 4.2.2 with no issues. I have the other things the new APK brings like the Photos icon replacing G+ Photos so unless they specifically have a setting that refuses to do the "Auto Awesome Movies" unless a device is running 4.3 or above it should work with just the new APK.

Good communities

The majority of folk I know are on Facebook and that seems to just fill my news feed with rubbish most of the time. G+ on the other hand has some good communities, generally speaking the folk on G+ seem a lot less aggressive and a lot nicer to talk to compared to Twitter. My G+ feed provides a good chunk of news and interesting articles and as for Twitter, it just seems to be broadcast channel of crap.

Re: Good communities

Has to be said, I've noticed that - some of the Linux communities are pretty good on there, light on abuse and heavy on advice.

Try doing the same thing on Facebook and pretty much every popular group is spammed or trolled into obsolescence. And never, ever look at the FB profiles of news sites/programs, your faith in humanity will drop through the floor in seconds...!

Please+ tell+ me+

... that adding a + sign to every word in a headline about Google+ is not going to become another one of those tiresome "Look! Aren'!t We! Being! Clever!" in-house quirks like we get on Yahoo! stories...

G+ features

I have made the switch.

While G+ is only marginally better privacy wise, it is better. And with a slicker and more manageable UI I decided last week to say good bye to facebook and stick to G+. About 60% of my friends and family on facebook have G+ accounts so I got contact details of the rest and deactivated my facebook account the day before yesterday.

I have had no inclination what so ever of going back as yet and I am fairly happy sticking with G+ now. But as with all "Social Network" venues on the net, I am sure I will be moving on to the next new one in a few years time. Flashback to MySpace and Yahoo Groups gel my feelings on that.